August 26, 2019 – Emergency Response, Communications and Sheltering in Place

Robert Hemminger, City of Deer Park Emergency Management Coordinator; David Wade, Harris County Industrial Liaison; Joe Reynolds, Chair of Channel Industrial Mutual Aid; and a DPCAC plant emergency response leader will be asked to cover the following topics:

How industry notifies affected cities of a major event like a fire, including e-Notify and Industrial Incident Communication protocols;

How the emergency response system works;

What a Unified Command system is and how it works, including its role in monitoring the air and communicating the results to those responsible for calling for a shelter in place;

How a city decides to call for a shelter in place;

The community warning systems used in Deer Park to call for a shelter in place.  The systems used by Harris County and other cities to do so;

The CAER Online website and app, which plants are to use to provide courtesy messages to the public about a noticeable incident.

Christina Perez, Chair of the Local Emergency Planning Committee Community Awareness Subcommittee, will be asked to cover the following topics:

LEPC efforts to increase public awareness of Deer Park’s warning systems, including Wally Wise Guy;

How to shelter in place when in a building, outside, or in a vehicle.

Attendees will be asked to do the following:

Learn how to sign up for Code Red and do so on the spot if needed;

Suggest additional ways to make the community aware of Deer Park’s warning systems.

·       Note:  A future meeting will cover who sets exposure limits for specific chemicals, how they do so, what they mean, how they are used in plant industrial hygiene programs, how they are used by cities and counties in a significant event, and where the public can obtain this information.